


When Archie Met Parker

by TacitPermission



Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-30
Updated: 2011-07-30
Packaged: 2017-10-21 23:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/231108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TacitPermission/pseuds/TacitPermission
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What my head imagined after watching 'The Inside Job' again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Archie Met Parker

   It was a Sunday afternoon with only three hours left till all the shops closed. Archie pulled his smart trench coat closed at the throat. He really needed a scarf. Despite the sky’s attempt at sunshine it was still anemic at best this early in the season. It would soon be his daughter Carly’s eleventh birthday. He only had a week to figure out what a girl who wasn’t yet a teen but not a baby, would want. Perhaps figure skates? He had only begun to ponder that option when a small body careened into him.

     “ ‘scuse me”

    He almost laughed then and there as a diminutive hand slid into his coat. It was a work of pure habit to reach down and grab the wrist. It was a very small wrist, the bones ground together with only the slightest of pressure. Archie glanced down to see a girl with big blue eyes looking up at him. He understood then the sight many reported seeing just before deer and automobile collided.

    To say the girl was waifish was an understatement. She was all long but not fully grown limbs but there was grace there too. Overall it just reasserted the likeness to a fawn. She wore a knit cap that had once been white but was now a dingy grey. Bright blonde hair was whisping out of the holes where the knit was unraveling. She had a poorly hidden bruise on her cheek. All in all she looked like any young street urchin, much like Oliver Twist. Archie had always liked the story of Oliver Twist. It reminded him of himself.

    Maybe it was the reminder of his old haunts? Maybe it was the fact the girl looked so much like his blossoming Carly? Or maybe, most of all, it was that she looked like she hadn’t eaten a real meal in days, that made him ask, “If you leave my wallet can I buy you lunch?”

    The girl blinked owlishly and bit her lip, “just lunch- no funny business?”

    Archie swallowed the bile in his throat at that. “Just lunch, and maybe some conversation.”

    He let go of her wrist and she left his wallet in his pocket as she retrieved her hand. She nodded.

    “Splendid. I know of a great café just round the corner.”  

    She followed him into the café without a word. It was bustling with folks out for the afternoon. It was just cold enough for the shop goers to want to fortify themselves with hot drinks. Archie and his young companion hit the line at the same time as a rather burly man in an awful black suit coat. The burly man pushed with his hip knocking into Archie and pushing ahead of him into the line.

    “Hey!” she complained. Her eyes were full of fire and her little hands were clenched into fists. He raised an eyebrow at her and made a sudden decision.

    Archie pulled a fiver out of his wallet and let it drop to the floor behind the rude man. Bending he said, “Oh! Sir, I think you may have dropped this!”

    “Why, yes I did.” the mark said spying the bill in Archie’s hand. As Archie gave the money over he shook the man’s hand then turned and gave the gaping truant a wink. A plan had begun to form in his mind. Archie was pretty sure it was a good plan.

                    )O(

    One thing Parker had learned a long time ago; when someone offered you free food you took it. You just had to make sure it really was free food. She’d gotten snookered into staying for a very boring church service once for some soup, she would never make that mistake again. And once Blue Billy had offered her pizza but she knew better, she knew what he would ask for in return. There was a reason she called him Blue Billy; Blue Billy and his blue, blue balls.

    But this was good food. A full turkey sandwich with chips, a steaming mug of cocoa, and not one but _two_ chocolate chip muffins were handed to her. He didn’t even blink when she put half the sandwich and the extra muffin in her backpack. She tried to eat slowly but she hadn’t had a square since yesterday morning. The sandwich and chips disappeared faster than she’d intended.

    She eyed her mysterious benefactor as she carefully extracted her muffin from it’s paper. He was old. Not really old, but older, just starting to go grey around the edges. The coat he was wearing was nice looking. Parker couldn’t tell what kind of material it was but it looked soft AND warm, which meant it was probably expensive. His shoes were shiny. He gave off the ‘I have money’ vibe. Which was a lot nicer than the ‘I am a perv’ vibe she had feared.

    Plus, there was the whole not calling the cops thing when he’d caught her. She was still suspicious. Maybe he was one of those social reformer do-gooders? She cringed at the coming lecture.

    “So my dear, My name is Archie, and I am a thief.”

    Wait- what! She thought to herself.  Archie in his nice coat and patent shoes pulled a watch from his pocket and dangled it in front of her. It was a nice watch, she could tell by the gold bezel and diamonds set on the face.

    He must have read her thoughts because then he said, “Worth much more than the five dollars it took to get it. Don’t you think?”

    Parker remembered the rude man from the line. She had wanted to shout and slap him for knocking around a nice guy like Archie. Apparently Archie wasn’t as nice a guy as she thought.

    Parker couldn’t contain the giggles that escaped her, “You’ve got to teach me how to do that!”

    Archie pocketed the watch again with a knowing smirk, “That was exactly what I was thinking.”


End file.
